Volume 8-Poetry Archives

Minotaur

By Emma Johnson-Rivard

I saw a woman’s death mask once, carved so delicately you could reach out
and feel the stones in her throat.

You should know I did not ask for this.
I had no say in my own creation.

This is the trouble. We covet beautiful things;
we cannot let them go.

How strange we are as beasts.

About the Author

Emma Johnson-Rivard is a midwestern writer of poetry and weird fiction. Her work has appeared in Strange Horizons, Coffin Bell, Moon City Review, and others. She can be found at Bluesky at @badcattales and on her website.

About the Artist

Michael Katchan is an illustrator in Denmark. He's addicted to coffee.

Lake by Michael Katchan

Volume 8-Poetry - 12/10/2024

Picturing Her Skin

By m.l. bach

The old woman looks at my young body
from her place at the care home breakfast table,
and I think of her skin ripening underground,
pre-pollinated, pre-flowered,
to fruit in her coffin—
she looks expensive in there,
adorned with pearls and gold, dead
and therefore perfect.

I think of her skin softening so milk white bones
begin to emerge from her perfumed flesh. I picture
the way it melts into the cream silk beneath her
body, eaten gently away by sweet-smelling
maggots, hungry for transformation and rot,
first her skin, then strung muscle and pink organ.

I serve her dinner tray and smile,
ask if there’s anything else she needs.
I picture the way her face will look without eyes.

This_Broken_Body_A_Portrait_Of_Deformity_-_Mixed_Media_Collage

This Broken Body: A Portrait of Deformity by Brett Stout

About the Author

m.l. bach is a poet from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her work has been published in Ninth Letter, Quiddity, and the Denver Quarterly. She's a third-year poetry student at the University of South Carolina's MFA program, and she is currently one of two poetry editors of Cola Literary Review.

About the Artist

Brett Stout is an artist and writer originally from Atlanta, Georgia. He is a high school dropout and former construction worker turned college graduate and paramedic. He creates mostly controversial artwork usually while breathing toxic paint fumes from a cramped apartment known as “The Nerd Lab.” His work has appeared in a vast range of diverse media, such as art and literature publications by NYU and Brown University.

Volume 8-Poetry - 12/10/2024

What Is Lost

There is no pleasant way
to say this
I picture petals falling
from a stem
Leaves shaken
off a tree’s silver branches
That cold first wind
of winter

Volume 8-Poetry - 12/10/2024

Vampire Finds Out You’re Low on Blood Sugar

By Eric Brown

It’s the slight retraction of the fangs,
just inked with crimson stains,
that signals that first impression
of disappointment. It’s not that the neck
wasn’t bare or taut enough,
the lace choker too limply woven,
the bodice too homespun for ripping.
(Though what sad labor went into so much
restitching.) But disappointment
all the same. Perhaps if you’d supped
on chocolate, or hydrated more,
or swallowed freely that second bite
of bagel, or if you’d stretched your
intermittent fasting a little less severely,
then those puncture wounds with black
and scabrous crust might have been yours.
The draining of all that sweet corpuscular
flamboyance. Instead, another bat-faced boy
in the night feeling sorry for you,
turning to mist, gone before sunrise.

Bigfoot_Saw_Us_But_No_Oner_Belived_Him_23x31

Bigfoot Saw Us But No One Believed Him by Daniel Wood Adams

About the Author

Eric Brown is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Maine Farmington and Executive Director of the Maine Irish Heritage Center. His books include Milton on Film, Insect Poetics, and Shakespeare in Performance, and his work has previously appeared or is forthcoming in Enchanted Living, Rust & Moth, The Ekphrastic Review, Mississippi Review (first prize, Hamlet issue), Carmina Magazine, The Galway Review, Sublunary Review, Constellations, Eternal Haunted Summer, Star*Line, The Frogmore Papers (shortlisted for the 2023 Frogmore Poetry Prize), and elsewhere.

About the Artist

Based in Austin, Texas, Daniel Wood Adams is a multifaceted creative with a passion for blending visual aesthetics and craftsmanship. As a graphic designer, illustrator, and woodworker, Daniel’s work reflects a unique intersection of artistry and skill. Daniel’s creative journey began with degrees in illustration and graphic design from Pratt Institute in 2012. Those formative years were a thrilling rollercoaster of art, Pabst Blue Ribbon, and caffeine-fueled all-nighters, setting the stage for what would become a dynamic career. In addition to his professional work, Daniel enjoys contributing to the local creative community and collaborating with fellow artists. His diverse skill set allows him to approach projects from unique angles, continually presenting new opportunities to grow and refine his craft. Daniel is excited to see where this journey will lead him next.

Volume 8-Poetry - 12/09/2024

Texas Chainsaw-esque

By John Sara

Shoe Tree by Warren Muzak

Hollow Screams by Warren Muzak

Madness hides in the backseat of a pickup,
feet blistered from running.
In the hot sun, blood
can be mistaken for sweat.
The bones of roadkill
can be fashioned
into a home.

Madness is a family, starved
at the dinner table; meat
stuck between teeth.

Your family tree is
made of skin. From
afar it looks like leather;
a dance in the orange dawn,
blades whirring,
laughing,
still alive
but barely.

About the Author

John Sara is a writer from Parma, Ohio. He received his BFA in Creative Writing from Bowling Green State University and is currently pursuing his MFA at Ashland University.

About the Artist

Warren Muzak's passion for illustrating started early, captivated by the visual narratives found in comics. He studied Graphic Design in college and from that worked at a few print-shops in pre-press. His abilities creating digital art got him a job as a production artist for a high-end carpet manufacturer where he took beautifully hand-painted gouache artboards and redrew them digitally to be used in manufacturing. In 2016, he met a seasoned UK stop-motion animator while working under contract for a small media production studio. This sparked a new direction—2D animation. Warren embraced it, finding a natural knack and genuine joy in the work and atmosphere in the studio. By 2018, freelancing became his full-time pursuit, honing his craft through persistent bids on online platforms.

Volume 8-Poetry - 12/09/2024

Summon Forth

By Jennifer Rodrigues

Love Potion No. Whatever by Bec Sommer

Like Love, We Wait in Ambush by Bec Sommer

I'm Skittish by Bec Sommer

Hooks Are Here for Me by Bec Sommer

Oh, I have waited for you dark clouds to brush past my lips to plant a kiss on my hips to draw me to a fire When mother night creases her hands they turn crimson to swallow up the earth whole As little kids we would shove nickels under the eyelids of demons to keep their gaze off our backs then we’d shower in the light of the moon quietly singing the anthem for the dead: the wind moves the leaves but not without a trace to shield you from the breeze and lie await to face the end of summer’s tale shall bring a halt to breath from the spire sounds the bell I summon forth your death We laugh and we sang but quietly, so as not to awaken the terror living within our hearts

About the Author

Jennifer Rodrigues currently lives on the sacred Powhatan land of Fairfax, VA. She is trained as a certified yoga therapist & trauma informed yoga teacher, is a queer & neurodivergent military spouse, & mom. She has been featured in many lovely literary journals, anthologies, and has been nominated for Best of the Net with her photography. Find her on Insta @gmoneyfunklove.

About the Artist

Bec Sommer is a painter and interdisciplinary artist from Saint Louis. He received his BFA in Painting from Kansas City Art Institute and his MFA in Visual Arts from Cornell University. His work tends to gravitate toward ideas of taboo, transgression, dysphoria, and infatuation, with an emphasis on collage and fandom-born methods, to create and deconstruct narrative scenes.

Volume 8-Poetry - 12/09/2024

Carnival of Souls – Release

By Allison Goldstein

Hunched at the edges
of the swirling gray water,

the men can only shake
their heads in quiet disappointment
as the car full of dead girls
is dredged from the river.

Silent faces young and perfect—
lipstick unsmudged,
not an eyelash
out of place.

A low groan escaping the tow truck
as it drags the sedan past
the cross-armed men
straddling the shoreline,

tires clawing into the mud
like the fingernails
of someone buried alive.

This_Limestone_Doom_-_Mixed_Media_Collage

This Limestone Doom by Brett Stout

About the Author

Allison Goldstein received her MFA in Poetry from California College of the Arts. She has been published in a variety of literary and cultural publications including Not Very Quiet: The Anthology, Burnt Pine, Molecule, Gyroscope Review, and Maximum Rocknroll. Allison currently lives and writes in South Florida. You can learn more about her work by visiting her website.

About the Artist

Volume 8-Poetry - 12/09/2024

Isle

By Eleanor Levine

I want pumpkin pie
and luscious small talk,
not opera breaking a glass;
martinis splattering;
everyone in flight while I
remain alone; blinking
stares: the way it is with
boys taking meat cleavers
to my feet so they turn
inward.

About the Author

Eleanor Levine’s writing has appeared in more than 130 publications, including New World Writing Quarterly, the Evergreen Review, The Hollins Critic, Gertrude, and the Maryland Literary Review. Her poetry collection, Waitress at the Red Moon Pizzeria, was published by Unsolicited Press (Portland, Oregon). Her short story collection, Kissing a Tree Surgeon, was published by Guernica Editions (Toronto, Ontario, Canada).

Untitled_Dark_Abstract_shaemeyer smaller

Untitled by Shae Meyer

About the Artist

Shae Meyer was born in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains in Boulder, CO. He studied at the University of Colorado, where he received his BFA in Printmaking. He moved to New York City and began working in studios producing large scale paintings in the Hudson River style, while developing his own processes. His work engages questions concerning objectivity, subjectivity, and individuality within the context of environment. Incorporating materials discarded and overlooked, he examines whether these have intrinsic value, or prescribed value based on their use. By pulverizing these objects, they often lose their natural form, and become hidden in the depths of a painting, becoming a part of the larger whole, an element within a larger context. For Meyer, these materials become an allegory for the value of an individual person, examining if somebody is more than merely the sum of their parts, or perhaps; are all these parts the same. Wondering constantly whether he is a big part of something small, or a small part of something big, or perhaps nothing at all.

Volume 8-Poetry - 12/09/2024

After Magritte’s The Lovers

By Lorna Wood

She knew he was respectable by his suit, shirt, and thin tie. He knew she was sensuous because she bared her arms, allowing him to caress her flesh, pressing it with his fingers as if she were a fruit he might or might not buy before he joined his cloth-covered mouth to hers. But always, each held something back from the other. Later, when their tongues were tired and coated with lint from fruitless probing, there would be a gradual unveiling, until no mystery remained—only two baby blankets, and, in the end, two shrouds.

See The Lovers

About the Author

Lorna Wood is a violinist, writer, and teacher in Auburn, Alabama. Her debut collection, The Great Garbage Patch: Reflections on Fascism (Alien Buddha Press) appeared in 2023. She has had poetry published in the US, the UK, Iceland, South Africa, India, and Australia. She has also published fiction, creative nonfiction, and scholarly articles. Find out more here.

Volume 8-Poetry - 12/08/2024